Steel Sentinels
Steel Sentinels is a Strategy game on FunOrb. It was a much-discussed topic on the FunOrb Forums before its release on 13 August 2009. It is officially a Multiplayer Real Time 2D Mech Blaster game, as stated on this page. In the game, players choose from various components to build their robot, or Sentinel. The evaluate statistics such as shielding, weight, weapon capabilities, and degrees of freedom. Then the weapons are selected based on reloading speed, range, damage, area of effect, energy usage, and additional effects. Finally, modules are selected to give their Sentinel protection & shielding, manoeuvrability, extra power, or more mysterious effects. The player may choose to head out into a multiplayer game and earn solarite, which is used to buy more complex and powerful components, or to head into campaign mode and steal technology from the enemies. Let the Solarite Wars begin! Gameplay Basic Controls System 1 * Movement ** A - start moving left ** D - start moving right ** S - stop moving * Jumping ** W - hold and aim jump with mouse; release to jump ** SHIFT - hold to aim jump with mouse; press SHIFT + LMB to jump * Weapons ** Q,E - select current weapon ** LMB - fire weapon towards mouse pointer * Camera ** Hold RMB and drag mouse - move camera ** V - centre camera on your sentinel System 2 * Movement ** Z - start moving left ** C - start moving right ** X - stop moving * Jumping ** RMB - hold and aim jump with mouse; release to jump ** SHIFT - hold to aim jump with mouse; press SHIFT + LMB to jump * Weapons ** Q,E - select current weapon ** LMB - fire weapon towards mouse pointer * Camera ** W,A,S,D or cursor keys - move camera ** V - centre camera on your sentinel For further information, play the first tutorial. Advanced Controls * ALT + LMB - Target lock enemy (requires the targeter module) ** ALT + RMB - Drop target lock * F - Melee (requires the thunder-blade arm, storm-hammer arm or fusion-blade arm) * F1 - Fire EMP bomb (requires the EMP bomb module) * F2 - Teleport (requires the EDD module) Campaigns Campaigns are a series of battles against computer controlled opponents. The player is given a sentinel for each mission, which cannot be customised. Italic = Members only Times Given are the maximum known time needed to achieve the star for that level. If you have a time that is greater then those mentioned please amend the table. Bolded Times are 100% certain Sentinels Sentinels are player controlled machines, used to destroy the enemy. Sentinels can be modified in the Configuration screen. More powerful sentinels and better equipment can be unlocked in two ways - by completing certain campaign missions, and by buying them with Solarite, which is earned in multiplayer games. Default Sentinels Weapons Any notes on a weapon will be in brackets, and any weapons in italic are members only. *The damage calculated from the machine-guns is per "burst." You get a burst by just clicking the fire button once, and holding it down obviously stacks bursts one after another. An estimated 15 bursts can be fired every 10 seconds by holding the fire button down, and obviously the damage from multiple guns stacks, so the damage can become much higher than the initial damage values in the table. An easy way to at least estimate damage is to take each of your guns and add the kPm together, then multiply by 1.5. That is the rough amount of damage you'll deal per second, assuming all the rounds meet their target. Modules Strategies Component Styles Below is a basic outline of configuration styles. *Sniper: Long range chassis with heavy armour and slow movement, usually equipped with rifled sniper cannon or mortar. This is most useful on Zone, Lost, and Moon. E.g. Turtle and Bertha. *Bomber: Good flying capabilities, with fire bombs or targetable weapons. This is most useful on Lost, Moon, and City. With some shielding, this can work well on Fleet as and offensive position near the opponent's ship. E.g. Hurricane and Orbital, or appropriately modified Crusher. *Melee: Units with short range, modest armour, and modest to fast speed, usually equipped with Close Range Assault Guns and/or Flak Cannons. E.g. Default Commando, Slave, and Crusher. *Evasive: Short range, fast speed, low health, often with Missile Scrambler and/or Walton Mirage Device A Valhalla chassis with a Jump Jet or Atmospheric Wing (and Gravity Pods and/or Aeruak Stabilises) can make a great evasive Sentinel with high health, but this is poorly equipped with weapons. More offensive configurations are the default Aquila and Orbital. Works best on Fleet and Moon. *EMP Master: Low to medium health, high Energy capacity, and modest to excellent thrusting. These will be equipped with a combination of EMP Weapons and EMP Rockets as their weapons, with possibly as Solaris laser to complement the EMP Cannon. Usually 3-7 Magnon Capacitors and an EMP Bomb Module are also equipped. This is only useful on fleet. A Crusher chassis (or Valhalla, if you will sacrifice a module) with the Sinistar Head can be the beginning of a great EMP-er. *Survivor: This works best with a default Babel Configuration (Possibly a Sinistar or Predator Head), with the module slots filled with all armour types, one/two Solar Energy Shields, and a Repair System. If you chose the Sinistar Head, you will want to fill the last slot with either a Magnon Capacitor (to supplement the Energized Armour) or ARMARDS, to work with the Ultra Gun you will likely equip. If you chose one shield and the Magnon Capacitor, you can fill the last slot with a Missile Scrambler or an Emergency Displacement Deployment Module. This configuration overall works best on City, is by far the best configuration for Co-op, and is decent on Moon. This is similar to the Melee style, but takes a more extreme view on defense. Remember that more powerful attacks can be made by equipping more than one of a single weapon type onto a sentinel. However, the full effects of the "stacked" weapon will normally only take place in the mid-firing range. In general, this only works with similar weapons, but one exception is the EMP Cannon/Solaris Laser Combo, one which is often demonstrated in Babel-class sentinels. Fleet: Flag Capturing Styles In general, there are two ways to try to capture the flag as a group: Co-ordinated and Asynchronous. Depending on how the other players configured their chassis, and how many players there are, you will need to decide which to go with. Co-ordinated capturing This is best used if you have a larger team (5 or 6 players), and the others have a strong defense. If your team is having difficulty escaping from the other ship with the flag (which is the most dangerous time), this is the best way to go. Try to time yourself so that you arrive at approximately the same time as your teammate(s). With multiple targets at once, you will have a higher chance of one you escaping. If one player has Walton Mirage Device, and another does not, the latter should arrive a couple seconds later; the opponents will likely waste many rockets and much energy trying to hit him, without being able to target. This is will make it more likely for second one, which can be targeted, to escape. Asynchronous capturing This will work better if the teams are smaller (2 or 3), and there is sufficiently little defense that you will escape the ship most of the time. This transforms the game more into a race for the flags. Remember that as soon as your teammate charges the ship, you lose your charge as well. One of you should stay behind until the teammate is three quarters of the way there, and then lift off. As you lift off, try to debilitate your opponent with either a flurry of rockets or some EMP damage. Then try to get yourselves co-ordinated, so that one of you gets the charge as soon as the other deposits it. If you get it too soon, briefly fly back and re-claim it; it won't take long. Again, if one of the players has the Walton Mirage Device and the other does not, the latter should be the one who goes second, as many heavy weapons may be wasted by missing an untargeted mirage. Maps Steel Sentinels Features 6 distinct maps to fight on. 3 are available to Free Players (War Zone, Lost Planet and City), while the others are for members only (Moon, Fleet and Co-op). NOTE: For all maps, points are gained from shooting sentinels and destroying other sentinels. Free-For-All Maps After sudden death is declared, if you die you will not respawn. Any sentinels respawning (dropping from the sky) when sudden death is declared will deploy as usual. NOTE: 'Advanced' Tech Level FFA games will start sudden death at 2,000 points. War Zone (Available to Free Players): Standard Free-For-All action. When one players points exceeds 1,000 (2,000 in advanced mode), sudden death begins. It ends after the time runs out, or every player but one is destroyed (There are no respawns in Sudden Death). The winner is determined by points. On this map, drones will spawn as well as up to two computer-controlled players (AI Invader 1 and AI Invader 2). City (Available to Free Players): Large buildings stop long distance shots unless you fire over them. There is a power up called the MGFN which slowly increases you score over time at a rate of around 3 points per second. When the sentinel carrying the MGFN is killed the power-up is dropped and anyone may collect it. When someone's score reaches over 1,000 (2,000 in advanced mode) either via the MGFN or killing other sentinels, sudden death begins and lasts until one player is left or time runs out (There are no respawns in Sudden Death). The player with the highest score wins. Moon: You will earn more points while inside the shield. Team Maps Lost Planet (Available to Free Players) Team game with a timer in the upper right hand side which goes from green to yellow to orange to red over ten minutes. At the end a spaceship will crash into the battlefield, killing everyone and ending the game, also known as a calamity (probably a reference to the Star Fleet map). During the green section nothing special happens, but further in the game ships will fly over head and shoot lasers, plasma balls and missiles as they fly over head. This has the potential to kill any sentinels that are high in the air by crashing into them. The winning team is team which has the most points at the Calamity. NOTE: It is possible to avoid the calamity by holding the 'Invincible' power up, also sometimes it will just not kill you all the way. This will give you the sole-survivor tag, assuming no one else survives as well. However, the calamity will still end the game. Star Fleet This is a team game in space. Each team starts on a spaceship on opposite sides of the map, with asteroids in-between. Making it to the other teams ship then back to your own will cause your ship to shoot an "enormo-laser" at the other ship. 3 hits of the laser will destroy a ship, which causes that team unable to respawn (essentially sudden death). The game ends once all players of a team are dead and unable to respawn. The winning team is the team with the most points, regardless of if they actually destroyed the enemy's ship or not. NOTE: After a certain amount of time, both ships fire automatically. This will bring the destruction of both ships if they're at the same health, or the ship that took a hit or two more than the other. NOTE: It is possible to win without destroying the other teams ship by having the most points when "sudden death" ends, however destroying the enemy's ship gives a lot of points. Co-op Campaign This option is members-only, and only available in unrated games. 2 players work together to fight increasingly difficult waves of AI, ending after 42 waves, where you confront a single Babel. Destroying every wave and beating this campaign will give you the achievement 'And It Costs How Much?', and unlocks the right to purchase the Golem Death Nuke for 1,000 Solarite Cubes. A very common strategy is to have one player use flak to block the entrance of a large cave from missiles while the other player fires long-range weapons in great numbers such as rifled sniper cannons, artillery (mortar/howitzer), and sometimes doomsday cannons. Relying heavily on energy usage is not highly recommended. NOTE: You will earn more points by having a very low tech value. Tags Tags are awarded for fulfilling certain requirements during a game. Players who resign do not receive any tags. Tags obtained in rated and co-op games are saved, those obtained in unrated are not. Achievements Total Achievements: 37 Total Orb Points: 12,500+ __NOWYSIWYG__ Trivia *The minimum technology value is 400. *The maximum technology value for non-members is 6100. *The maximum technology value for members is 29849. *When Steel Sentinels first came out, you could see the "Diamond Sentinel" achievement if you hovered over a correct spot. It was fixed around a week later. *Aeruak Stabilisers are referred to as Air Stabilisers on redundancy warning messages. *The Stormhammer arm is referred to as the doom-hammer in the chassis blurb. *When Steel Sentinels first came out, non-members could play advanced games by leaving the technology level setting unchanged. This was soon fixed. *Mod Thomas has stated that there is a Dune reference somewhere in the game. Funorb Forum It has yet to be reported. *"Aquila" is the Latin word for Eagle. *"Bertha" refers to the Big Bertha, a cannon used by the German army in WWI. *"Valhalla" is a Norse mythological longhall where the deceased heroes feast. In other words, Viking Heaven. *"Babel" is the Hebrew name for Babylon, the tower that was built in the city, a fictional fish (invented by Douglas Adams) named after the city, and many websites and bands named after the fish. *When Steel Sentinels first came out, you weren't able to target people with the mirage device even when they were energised (giving away their position). That was changed in an early update. *On the Fleet level, the two ships very slowly move towards each other. This causes any rocks in their way to explode, dealing damage to anyone who has landed on them. *There is only 31 known tags- but 32 slots for them in game. Category:All Games Category:Strategy Games Category:Shooter Games Category:Multi-player Games Category:Games with achievements with duplicate names